How to Remember God's Promises When Bad Things Happen with Pastor Buddy Owens

hi Saddleback Church how are you are you happy should I believe you I'm happy to see I'm glad to be here hey before we get into the message though there's a couple things I want us to pray about together as a church you may know this already but this morning at about 9 o'clock we sent nearly 900 high school students to camp that's a lot of high school students and another hundred counselors and volunteers is like a thousand people and we sent 18 bus loads of people we sent to summer camp which means there's a whole lot of happy parents here it's a Saddleback Church but like many of you I I grew up around church and every summer I went to junior high camp I went to high school camp I even went up into college camp and those experiences we're really defining for me so I want us to pray today that this will be a defining moment for all of those high school kids that are going some of mister last time and they need to hear from God God wants to get a hold of their life too so we're going to pray for them I'm going to pray for safety and we're going to pray that it'll just be a great time to be with each other and to be with the Lord the other thing that I want us to pray about a little more serious if you got the church news this week that comes out in email on Thursday we said that Pastor Rick was going to be preaching here this weekend obviously I am NOT Pastor Rick he's okay don't worry about him but as it turns out Friday would have been Matthew's 29th birthday and it was tougher on the family than they expected it to be and so Rick thought that you know I'd probably be smarter to just stay home with Kay it's been time with the family just move through this wave that they're going through so I want us to pray for our pastor in his family tonight too so would you do that with me would you pray to get father we want to thank you for the opportunity to gather here as your family and to worship you and to hear from your word and Lord before we we get into that though there are some things that we want to talk to you about first we want to thank you that so many high school kids are going to camp what a great opportunity for you to reach so many kids all at once and so Lord we pray for safety as they travel that's a lot of buses that's a lot of traffic that's a lot of opportunity for things to go a little haywire and we pray that they will be safe that you'll give them mercy as they travel and Lord we pray that this week away will truly be life-changing for them that you will meet these kids right where they are that they will know without any doubt that you care about them that you love them and that you have a plan for their life - and father we also pray today for Pastor Rick and for K for Amy and Josh for their families this is a tough time it's a hard season for them and we grieve with them Lord as your word says when one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts and so we hurt with Rick and Kay today and we ask you Lord to be an ever-present help in this time of trouble for them we asked you to come alongside to lift them up to be their comforter to be their counselor to let them know how deeply loved they are by you and by us take care of them we pray we ask this in Jesus name Amen well thank you for praying with me if you want to take out your message notes I was teaching all week this past week at a worship conference the National worship leader conference in Kansas City as I do I do that several times a year and so I was flying home on Friday from Kansas changing planes in Dallas about 1:00 in the afternoon and I got an email from Rick going hey buddy I changed my mind you got a message in you so here I am and here are your notes and you'll notice there is only one fill-in so this will be easy for you because the fill-in is your name I hope you know your name because it's part of the title of the message when bad things happen too and it says your name here so take a pen and write your name on the top of that outline when bad things happen to John when bad things happen to George when bad things happen to Susan - Bonnie whatever your name is write it there because that's what we're going to talk about today have you ever gone through one of those seasons when it just seems like your life is falling apart and you can't figure out why now a lot of times we find ourselves in some kind of trouble or facing some kind of challenge and if we are honest with ourselves and we look at what's been going on we go well you know I probably made a couple of dumb decisions and I probably deserve what I'm going through here if I'm honest with myself but there are other times when bad things happen for no good reason you know what I'm talking about you ever had something bad happen for no good reason you've been behaving yourself you're trying to do all the right things you're trying to live your life the way the Lord wants you to live obeying the Word of God worshiping Lord reading your Bible this message this weekend is actually especially meaningful to me I may be I'm talking to myself because just this morning while I was standing here preaching at the nine o'clock service somebody ran into my car in the parking lot something bad happened for all the wrong reasons right I I'm doing the right thing and that happened that's what I'm talking about when you're doing the right thing you're following the Lord and something bad happens and you go I don't get this God why did this happen why are you allowing this where are you and all of this don't you even care what's happening and if you're in one of those seasons I mean mine's kind of funny hey a big deal it's a car right that's fixable but if you're in one of those seasons of life one of those times when you're challenged by something and you're maybe afraid of what's going on and you're saying I I need some hope well that's what I want to give to you tonight I believe that this message is a message of hope for you we're going to look at one main verse there will be a lot of other scriptures on the screen but I gave one main verse in your outline and it's a promise that God gave to someone that has filled with hope so we're going to look at that verse and then we're going to back up a little bit and look at the story look at the context in which that verse was given in Scripture because it's important for us to look at the context of things otherwise we take things out of context you ever been taken out of context do you like it I don't think God does either so we don't want to take him out of context we need to look at what's the background to this promise how does this apply to our life now I have to warn you that I'm going to repeat myself a lot I have to warn you that I'm going to repeat myself a lot and it's not because I didn't have enough things to say the reason I'm going to repeat myself is because sometimes we need to hear something more than once to really let it sink in I mean if we're honest with ourselves we're all really just a bunch of knuckleheads right and sometimes it takes more than one knuckle to get it through our heads this truth that God wants us to hear because we've got all of these defenses up on all of these other ways of seeing and thinking and God has to break through and sometimes he has to kind of bang on that wall a few times for the truth to come in before I was here at Saddleback I used to do a lot of speaking for a men's organization called Promise Keepers back in the 90s and we would fill football stadiums with 60 70,000 men and I'd speak of these things with with the promise keeper team promise keepers was started by a football coach a guy named bill McCartney and coach Mac as we call him was the head football coach for Colorado University for the Buffaloes Colorado University he had been voted the number one coach in America he had taken his team to a national championship and there is no one I am convinced and I've heard a lot of great people a lot of great speakers I know what stage I'm standing on here today but I can still say there's nobody in the world who knows how to motivate men better than coach bill McCartney and so someone asked him one time so what's your secret coach how do you do this he said when you're talking to man he said it's really pretty simple he said here's what you do you tell him once and then you tell him again and then you tell them a thousand more times and that's how you teach men something that's why I need to repeat it because that's really true I think often for all of us we need to hear things more than once so let's look at our verse today it'll be here on the screen and here's what the Bible says the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure now this verse was a promise that was given to a good man who was going through a bad time the man's name was Hezekiah and he was the king of the southern kingdom of Israel the kingdom of Judah and he was a man who was doing all of the right things in the right way before God and yet he found himself under assault from an enemy who was way too powerful for him to handle on his own and so Hezekiah found himself facing a crisis not just a personal crisis of his own leadership it was a national crisis the the fate of his people was in his hands the weight of the world was sitting on his shoulders and if he made one mistake one misstep one miscue it was all over we read about this man and we find out that he was one of the great kings of Israel now the Bible tells us when we read in the books of first and second kings and first and second chronicles and reading all these names of people that you can't pronounce we find that there were kings there's one guy was a good king and then the next guy was a bad king and then the next guy was a good king and then here came a bad king and they just kind of went in cycles but in this case Hezekiah was one of the good guys he became king when he was 25 years old you imagine being 25 years old and you're king of a nation and in his very first year as king he led the whole nation in a spiritual revival they turned their hearts back to the Lord they got rid of their idols that got rid of false worship and they turned their hearts to God in fact the Bible says that he led a Passover celebration unlike anything they had seen for 250 years so Hezekiah was one of the good guys I want us to look at a passage that that describes something about his life it's here on the screen here's what the Bible says Hezekiah trusted in the Lord the God of Israel there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah either before him or after him he held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses and the Lord was with him he was successful in whatever he undertook now you read that kind of a life description and you think that sounds like a good life that sounds like the kind of person I would want to be someone who everything I undertook I was successful in because God was blessing me that sounds like a model for Christian living it sounds like the kind of life that should be free from trouble but look at this next verse on the screen after all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah now let me talk about Sennacherib for a moment here Sennacherib what a lovely name the name like that no wonder he was grumpy Sennacherib was the dominant world leader of his day and Assyria was the dominant world power and the Assyrians were in the process of conquering all of the surrounding nations and what they did when they moved in and took over a country they didn't just occupy that country they took all of the people out of that country and scattered them about in their empire so it took people's national identity away and the Assyrians were now threatening to do the same thing to the kingdom of Judah now we see often in Scripture that when God's people disobeyed him that he would allow their enemies to rise up and come against them because he was trying to get the people to turn their hearts back to God but in this case they already were worshiping the Lord they were already doing all the right things you might say they were behaving themselves they hadn't done anything to deserve this but now the Assyrians had surrounded Judah they actually Jerusalem itself was under siege they were vastly outnumbered they had no hope of any kind of a military victory and everything that Hezekiah and his people had worked so hard for was about to be either destroyed or stripped away from them they had done nothing wrong but this was an onslaught that was too powerful to them now Hezekiah tried to assure the people that God was going to take care of them and so Sennacherib began sending messengers into Judah into Jerusalem he also was sending letters threatening letters to Hezekiah I want us to look at a passage that gives us an idea of the kind of message that Sennacherib was sending to the people look at this passage it's that they're quoting Sennacherib he says don't let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says the Lord will surely deliver us and this city will not be given in the hand of the king of Assyria do not listen to Hezekiah this is what the king of Assyria says make peace with me come out to me then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you to a land just like your own a land of grain and new wine a land of bread and vineyards a land of olive trees and honey choose life not death do not listen to Hezekiah for he is misleading you when he says the Lord will deliver us doesn't that just sound like the devil saying look if you just come on out if you just play along with me if you just do things the way I say your life is going to be wonderful everything you ever wanted I will give it to you it'll be just like the life that you've always wanted if you'll just do things my way don't listen to those preachers don't listen to those Christians who say well no this is the way you're supposed to live this is the life god blesses don't listen to them listen to me it sounds just like him doesn't it that was a message from Sennacherib now remember Hezekiah hadn't done anything wrong so this was not God's punishment but it couldn't have seemed like God's reward for doing the right thing either so now we have to get to a question of how does this apply to your life I mean why am i giving you the history lesson you know most of us slept through history in school many of us are still sleeping through history tonight we have to go okay well why this why is this important I've often said that when you come to the Bible and reading stories like this you have to remember that the Bible does not just tell us what God did it tells us how he does things it doesn't just tell us the things that happened it tells us how things happen it doesn't just tell us the things that God said it tells us how God thinks the Bible is not a collection of historical facts it is a collection of eternal truth so when you come to an historical passage like this passage out of 2nd kings about Hezekiah you have to ask what is the eternal truth what is God trying to say why out of all of the things that ever happened to that nation why did he want this story to be written down why did he want this promise from Isaiah to be written down what is God trying to say to us what is he trying to say to me and when and how does this apply to my life in fact I want us to look at a verse of scripture that backs up what I just said to you this from first Corinthians chapter 10 look at this it says these things happen to them now what things and who is them the things are these histories like the story we're reading about and the vehm is God's people in the Old Testament it says these things happen to them as examples and they were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come so we have to say what's the example and what's the warning why did God want this written what's he trying to say to us so now let me get back to your life and say how does this apply to you what does your life look like in terms of this kind of story does it ever seem to you like your actions like your motivation is being unfairly challenged by somebody or that maybe you are under attack for doing the right thing or you're under attack for refusing to do the wrong thing or you feel like you are about to just be swept away by something by forces by people by some circumstance that is just too much for you to withstand does any of that ever sound familiar to you where you're outnumbered you're outgunned you're out thought you're outclassed you're outmaneuvered and you just find that you are overcome by overwhelming odds and you're going God I don't get this I've been living right so why is this happening to me I've been doing all the things that you want me to do I've even been preaching here at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning why is this happening to me don't you care I don't know how much longer I can hold out on this I've been good and you don't seem to be paying attention God I've been living up to my end of the bargain so God why are you living up to your end of the bargain don't you owe me something for my good behavior and I think that last question is a question that a lot of us ask God I've been behaving myself don't you owe me something for this let me tell you something God loves you he is compassionate he is faithful he cares more about your life than even you do but God doesn't owe you anything so why does he let these things happen well sometimes he allows them to happen because he wants us to learn something about himself and sometimes he lets them happen because he wants us to learn something about ourselves and sometimes he lets them happen because he wants to show the world something about who he is and he's going to show the world through you through your experience so let's get back now to has let's see how did he respond to this let's look at what he did here's what the Bible says this is right after he's gotten this letter it says Hezekiah went up to the temple of the Lord and he spread the letter that's the bad news he spread the letter out before the Lord and Hezekiah prayed O Lord God of Israel and throne between the cherubim you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth now O Lord our God deliver us so that all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone are God now what can we learn from what Hezekiah did well here's the first thing we can learn before he planned he prayed it's important to get the order right on that before he planned he prayed our tendency when we find some challenge or crisis is to start trying to figure out what are we going to do how are we going to get through this how are we going to outsmart whoever it is and we come up with some scheme some plan and then we pray and say Lord would you please bless us because God if you don't bless this plan it's not going to work but prayer is not about getting God to agree to your plan prayer is not about bringing God to his senses prayer is about bringing me to God's senses prayer is not about me saying Lord here's my plan I hope you'll bless it prayer is about saying Lord what is the plan that you intend to bless and I'll do that instead that's how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer we begin our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name let your name be glorified he says your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven now having said that here's what I need I need daily bread I need provision I need forgiveness I need protection and then you lay out your need but you start it by saying Lord I want your name to be praised first I want to know what you want to do before I tell you what I want to do and then he ends the Lord's Prayer where he started Lord let your name be glorified that's how Hezekiah prays let's look at his prayer again here's what he said he begins with worship Oh Lord God of Israel and throne between the cherubim you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth so he starts with prays you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth here's why this is important because in those times when one nation defeated another nation it wasn't just a physical army defeating another physical army the people viewed that as one God defeating another God Sennacherib and the Assyrians had said no other gods have been able to withstand us and so Hezekiah prays and says you alone you alone are God over all of the kingdoms of the earth so he begins with worship declaring who God is and then he says now O Lord our God hears our need deliver us why he doesn't say deliver us so that I can be the hero he doesn't say deliver us so that our people can live in peace and have a happy life he says deliver us so that all the kingdoms on the earth may know that you alone O Lord our God the ultimate goal of Hezekiah Sprayer is that the name of the Lord will be glorified and that needs to be the way we pray - no matter what our need is no matter how we bring that request to God that it is in the context of worship and we say Lord no matter what happens I want your name to be glorified whatever that takes show me what your plan is and I'll do what you want so that's how he teaches us to pray now as we find our way back to this theme verse and I've given you a background of what led to this it's into this context of a national crisis it's into this context of a time of fear and dread and despair of an overwhelming challenge that is too big for a man to handle in that situation God sends a man named Isaiah Isaiah was of the nation's prophet and God sent Isaiah the nation's spiritual leader to Hezekiah the nation's political leader and he sent him with a message for God's people and this message actually encompasses several chapters of the book of Isaiah when you read Isaiah and you're reading all of these promises and all of these prophecies while they take place in the context of this season this time when the Assyrians are coming against the people of Judah and God sent several messages that you can read in that book but this one in particular is what we're looking at today Isaiah 33 6 in essence what God says in all of this what he's saying to Hezekiah and the people as he's saying I know what you're going through and I know how you feel but you don't have to be afraid I have heard your prayer and then God gives a magnificent promise of deliverance to the people and it's in this context of a bad thing happening to a good man who is facing overwhelming odds in that context God makes this promise so let's look at the promise again the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure now as you look at that verse let's unpack it a little bit what does he mean by the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times what kind of times is he talking about here well he's not talking about the lifespan of Hezekiah not talking about that time he's not talking about ages or eons of time he's talking about specific moments in time decisive moments in time what the Greeks would later call Kairos moments they are moments of decision that must be pressed through in order to accomplish a specific purpose they're the kinds of times in your life where someone might say hey how you doing and you go man I'm going through a rough time right now or I'm really having a hard season in our life or you look back on something to say man wasn't that an amazing time of our life it's those kinds of times that he's talking about and those times usually come to us unexpectedly they come suddenly and often they come undeservedly we've done nothing to deserve them we've done nothing wrong it's just happened in hezekiah x' case this time was a national crisis the preservation of a nation was at stake in your life this kind of time could be a personal crisis where your own preservation is at stake it could be a catastrophic illness it could be a deep loss like the Warrens have gone through it could be a betrayal by a dear friend a trusted friend or a loved one it could be one of those times when it seems like everything in life is just crashing in on you maybe you got a bad report from your doctor maybe you got a phone call in the middle of the night that woke you up with news that you never wanted to hear maybe there's a relationship that's been meaningful to you and suddenly it's on rocky ground and you're going why is this happening I thought I was doing everything right I don't understand why this is all going wrong why is this person betraying me why is this person turned against me or maybe it's a time where that ship that you thought your ship is finally going to come in and it just sank outside the harbor and you're going now what am I supposed to do how am I going to get through this it's in these times that we are tempted like the people of Israel were to sell out to give in to compromise what we know is right and true because if we would just give in or give up life would be so much easier if we just stop putting up resistance everything would be just rosy but it's those times when your faith your character and your integrity are being put to the test now for Hezekiah he needed three things in this crisis and all three of them were addressed in this promise first he needed knowledge he needed to know what is going on what are my enemy's plans what is he going to do next he needed knowledge second he needed wisdom what kind of decision am I supposed to make what is the best thing for me to do how can I find our way through this I need some wisdom here because I've only got one shot at this if I make one mistake if I slip up here it's all over so he needed knowledge he needed wisdom and he needed salvation he needed to be rescued he needed to be delivered a kind of deliverance that only God could provide does that sound like something that you need do you need knowledge or wisdom in the face of something that you're standing in front of right now you have a decision that you have to make a very important possibly life-changing decision and you're looking for God's wisdom or maybe you need to be rescued from something that's happened in your life maybe that's why you came here today because something has come up and you're saying I need to know if God has anything to say to me I need to see if he's got some promise something that I can come away from church with something I can hold on to because there's nothing else I can hold on to right now you know a lot of times we go to the Bible that way many people only go to the Bible when they are in a crisis and so they wind up just sort of opening the Bible wherever they can and just dropping their finger on the page hoping to get lucky and find some sweet little verse that they can hold on to that really has nothing to do with what they're going through but if you're in one of those kind of situations if you're in one of those kind of times right now in your life and you're looking for a promise from God well that's what this promise from Isaiah is it applies to this kind of a time in your life because that's when God gave it to Hezekiah and so I want us to look at that promise one more time look at these words the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure so there is a verse for you to hold on to a promise to hold on to in fact I want you to hear it in a different way I want you to hear the Lord say it to you the way Isaiah would have said it to Hezekiah person to person just to you so let me invite you to do something why don't you just close your eyes don't be afraid no one's going to hurt you just close your eyes turn your heart to the Lord in prayer and hear the Lord say to you through this verse just like he was saying to Hezekiah or he says I have heard your prayer and I know how you feel and I know what you're facing and I know why it's happening but you don't have to be afraid because I myself will be your sure foundation I will undergird you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand I will sustain you if you need wisdom I will give it to you and I will show you what to do in this moment in your time the Lord says I will be the solid rock for you to stand on your shore firm unwavering unshakable foundation so don't move off that foundation and I will be a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge for you now just take a second until God thank you for his word so if God has given you a promise a promise where we understand the context it's his gift to you well now we need to unpack this gift unwrap it a little bit when he says I will be a rich store of salvation what's he talking about there well it's important to understand the meaning of salvation in Scripture salvation does not just mean to have your sins forgiven so you can go to heaven salvation has a broader meaning than just that in Scripture salvation means to relieve you from something that is constricting or confining you and to give you room to breathe salvation also means to turn scarcity into sufficiency and salvation in Scripture means to bring freedom from distress let me say those things again because I see a lot of you writing this down it means to relieve you from something that is constricting or confining you so that you have room to breathe it means to turn scarcity into sufficiency and it means to bring freedom from distress so let me ask you are you in a tight spot stressed out anxious back against the wall you can't even catch your breath God says I will be a rich store of salvation I will make a wide space for you and give you room to breathe I will make a way where there is no way or are you coming up short in the face of some overwhelming challenge and you just don't have what it takes to get the job done to find your way through this you're facing scarcity of resource God says I will be a rich store of salvation for you I will be your sufficiency I will provide for you or does it seem that you just cannot catch a break and everywhere you turn one thing after another is going wrong and you're about to give up hope God says I will be a rich store of salvation I will bring freedom from your distress I will bring a hope for your despair I will bring light into your darkness I will be a rich store of salvation I told you I was going to repeat myself a lot and he says I will save you in ways that can only have been done through my divine power and intervention because you know that your resource at hand is insufficient for the task and when I move in your direction and on your behalf it will not just be you getting by by the skin of your teeth it will be an over obvious abundance an outpouring of my power and grace in your life into your situation are there any takers in this place is there anybody in this room that says I need some of that right now in my life because there stuff that I'm facing and I don't know what to do and you want to lay hold of this promise from God because you need him to be a rich store of salvation for you if that's what you need today the Bible tells you how to allow that to happen he finishes that promise by saying the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure so what is the fear of the Lord what does it mean to fear God well it doesn't mean to be scared it's not that kind of fear God loves you he's not going to hurt you in fact the Bible says that perfect love casts out fear and God loves you perfectly so it's not that kind of fear let's look at a couple of other verses about the fear of the Lord here's what the Bible says in proverbs 9 it says the fear of the Lord is that be getting of wisdom you need some wisdom it starts with the fear of the Lord proverbs 14 the Bible says the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life so what is the fear of the Lord well let me give you a definition a meaning of the fear of the Lord the fear of the Lord means reverence respect and awe that leads to obedience now notice it's not just reverence respect and awe there's a lot of people who say oh yes I respect God oh yes I have reverence for God I take my hat off when somebody prays it's not that kind of reverence respect in awe it's reverence respect and awe that leads to a change of life that leads to obedience where you're not just saying yeah I worship God with the things that I say on Sunday morning when I come to church or I sing a song on Sunday night but it's that you make the choice to worship God with all of life it's what we call life worship it's worshiping God in spirit and in truth is not just religious activities it's not just religious words but it's living according to God's words and his ways it's making the choice to live for his glory and to worship Him with your life that's what the fear of the Lord is to worship Him with all of life so I want you to write something down in your notes and I think if I remember right I think I left enough space on that paper for you to write this sentence down so write this down when you fear the Lord you have nothing else to fear when you fear the Lord you have nothing else to fear God said to Hezekiah if you will fear the Lord you will not have to fear Sennacherib and God says to you if you will fear the Lord you do not have to be afraid of what you're facing you don't have to be afraid of the outcome or the possibilities or the terror that is in front of you if you fear the Lord there is nothing else to fear because I will be your foundation and I will be the rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge for you now the Bible tells us how this crisis ended for Hezekiah and Sennacherib it tells us in second chronicles and what we find as we read through the story is that that very night the night that God sent Isaiah with a message to Hezekiah that very night God also sent an angel into the Assyrian army camp and 185 thousand Assyrian soldiers died in one night and God's people never even had to leave their houses Sennacherib escaped that scene returned to Assyria in disgrace and shame and he was assassinated by his own two sons in the temple of his own God that's how that story ended the question now is how was your story going to end and to a great extent you have a role to play in making that decision you have a decision to make that will impact how your story ends you can choose to fear the Lord to worship him with your life to say in spite of everything that is going on I will not compromise I will not come out to my enemy I will not let down my guard but I will worship the Lord with my life you can choose to fear the Lord and worship Him and then experience his deliverance or you can rely on yourself and face your enemy all alone it's your choice and it's a choice that you are going to make whether you want to or not it's inevitable you will make the choice who will you worship who will you follow who will you fear will you fear the Lord or will you fear your enemy your enemy wants to destroy you the Lord wants to set you free who are you going to fear the fear of the Lord it says is the key to this treasure worshiping the Lord is the key that unlocks and releases us into this rich store of salvation does anybody here need to be rescued from something does anybody here need wisdom today or knowledge about something that's going on does anybody here need a firm foundation to stand on because it just seems like you're running in quicksand does anybody here today need Jesus God says the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure in your time of distress worship him in your time of fear worship Him in your time of doubt or confusion worship Him that's when you worship God you don't worship God after the trouble is over the fear of the Lord is to worship Him in the middle of it all you see anybody can praise God when life is all wonderful and happy but true worship is when you make the decision to live in the fear of the Lord when everything around you is falling apart anybody can praise God when they got a bunch of money in the bank but the fear of the Lord is to worship God when you don't have two nickels to rub together anybody can praise God when they've got perfect health but the fear of the Lord is to choose to worship God when you got that phone call from the doctor that you didn't want to get the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure and it's a decision that every one of us has to make and when we decide to live in the fear of the Lord God says and you have to look again at his promise he doesn't just say you will get a foundation to stand on he says I myself will be your foundation you don't just get salvation you get him you don't just get wisdom you get him you don't just get knowledge you get him you don't just get a drop of water you get the whole well but the fear of the Lord living your life as an act of worship before God living according to his word and his ways is the key to that treasure and that's why worship is so important to your life especially when you're in one of those times one of those seasons that's when it is of utmost importance that you worship God worship Him in the decisions that you make you can tell what someone worships by the way they live their life so if someone were to look at your life especially in a crisis would they be able to tell that you worship the Lord by the decisions that you're making by your value judgments we worship the Lord by our choices we worship the Lord with our words we worship the Lord yes with our songs we worship the Lord because worship is what opens up the floodgates of God's provision worship places you in the river of God's grace so here's how we're going to finish this message we're going to finish by singing a song of worship as a congregation we're going to sing to the Lord that song blessed be your name in good times and bad times Lord blessed be your name we need to sing that song together because it needs to be true about our lives but before we sing I want to give you the opportunity to talk to God about what's on your mind I want to give you the chance to do what Hezekiah did the Bible says that he went in and he he presented that that letter says he brought the letter before God he brought him the bad news here's all the details god I want to give you the opportunity to do that to whatever it is that you're facing today whatever challenge is happening in your life wherever it is that you need God to come through for you I want to give you a chance to talk to the Lord about it so here's how we're going to pray so we have led you in prayer before where I like us to pray with our hands because it's a demonstration of something that's really going on in our hearts you know the Bible says when you lift your hands you're lifting your heart that's why we so many of us lift our hands when we sing to him Bible says when you lift your hands you lift your heart to the Lord Bible says when you bow your knees you're bowing your heart to him so there are these physical demonstrations of a spiritual reality so when we pray this way and we come with our hands open in front of us just waist high or on your lap just your hands open it's like you're saying Lord here's here's my stuff here's my letter this is what's going on and you present your requests to God and I'll lead you through a prayer and then I'll have you turn your palms down like this and it symbolizes that I'm just letting go I brought it to God I don't want to take it back I'm bringing it to the Lord and I'm letting it go and I'm giving it to him and putting it in his hands so that his will can be done and then we'll turn our palms up again as a sign of receiving God's grace for us can we pray together alright just close your eyes if you don't feel comfortable doing that with your hands don't worry about it you don't have to but I want to encourage you to try this just with your hands open before the Lord and as I pray just let my words be your words you say father first like Hezekiah I want to begin my prayer with praise you alone are God you are the God over all of the earth you are the Creator you are my provider you're my Savior you're my counselor you're my friend and I worship you today as my King as my god I worship you lord but today there's some things going on that I am afraid of there are some challenges I'm facing a night I just I don't know what to do about them they're too big for me and I feel like I'm just about to lose it all so Lord I'm bringing my requests just like Hezekiah brought that letter with all of that bad news I'm bringing you some bad news today because this is what's happening in my life now in your own silent prayer just take a minute and tell the Lord exactly what's on your mind tell him what you've put in your hands right now now turn your palms down and just say Lord I know that I can trust you with these things and so I release them to you I let them go I give them to you and I pray let your kingdom come let your will be done in my part of the earth just like it is in heaven this is now your problem because I can't deal with this now just let go don't take the problem back just let go let go of your kids let go of your parents let go of your spouse let go of your mortgage your job that conflict you're facing just you've given it to God take your hands off of it and let it go and now turn your palms up and just say Lord now my hands are empty I've given you what's on my heart and I've asked for your will to be done now my hands are available to you and Lord by faith today I take hold of your promise and by faith today I receive everything that your grace will afford today I receive provision I receive your peace I receive joy I receive Direction Lord I receive forgiveness of my sins and I receive grace to forgive those who have sinned against me and lord I pray that through my hands that somehow your name will be glorified in my life today whatever happens however you work out these details Lord let your name be glorified through me today as I choose to live my life in the fear of the Lord as an act of worship and I pray this in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 119,965

Rating: 4.7645326 out of 5

Keywords: Saddleback Church, Saddleback Lake Forest, Pastor Buddy Owens, God's Promises, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, Hope, Wisdom, Freedom, When Life Gets Difficult

Id: Dvd5EjuNkc8

Length: 54min 44sec (3284 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 21 2014